(a) Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a display device, and more particularly to a structure of a floating bar of a display device.
(b) Discussion of the Related Art
Recently, instead of heavy and large cathode ray tubes (CRTs), flat panel displays, such as an organic light emitting diode (OLED) display, a plasma display panel (PDP), and a liquid crystal display (LCD) have actively been developed.
The PDP is a display device for displaying characters or images using plasma generated by gas discharge, and the OLED display displays characters or images using an electric field to cause a specific organic material or a high polymer to emit light. The LCD applies an electric field to a liquid crystal layer between two display panels and regulates the magnitude of the electric field so as to regulate the transmittance of light passing through the liquid crystal layer, thereby realizing desired images.
Among flat panel displays, as examples, the LCD and the OLED display respectively include a display panel provided with a pixel including a switching element and a display signal line, a gate driver for sending a gate signal to a gate line among display signal lines so as to turn on/off the switching element of the pixel, a gray voltage generator for generating a plurality of gray voltages, a data driver for selecting a voltage corresponding to an image data among gray voltages as a data voltage and applying the data voltage to a data line among the display signal lines, and a signal controller for controlling these elements.
A display panel unit includes a display area in which most of the pixels and the display signal lines are formed, and a peripheral area outside the display area.
A floating bar, which is made of the same layer as a gate line and crosses a data line, is disposed in the peripheral area, and a diode for preventing static electricity is connected between the data line and the floating bar so that static electricity flowing into the data line can be dispersed, thereby protecting the data line. Such floating bar is usually formed of the same layer as the gate line.
The floating bar is formed in a bar shape in a horizontal direction respectively above and below the peripheral area. During or after the manufacturing of the display device, the floating bar may become short-circuited with the data line because of minute particles, etc. This may cause a load at the data line so as to cause a delay therein, so there may be a problem in that images are not properly displayed.
The above information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the invention and therefore it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known in this country to a person of ordinary skill in the art.